PHP - MySQL - Backup database daily - php

Question

I have developed an agenda which works (server-side) with PHP and MySQL. The last thing I need to do is to make an authomatic daily backup of the database.
This is what I have thought may be the easiest: Write a php script which once every 24hs saves a file(Whose name would be a timestamp) in certain folder in the server. Combining this with time machine or some other backup software to backup this folder into an external disk should be enough.
So now, the questions are: How do I make a php script to run automatically once per day? How do I save a file with sql backup from a php script?(Similar to phpMyAdmin export as sql)
Thanks!

Answer 1

If you are running apache server:
sudo nano /etc/crontab
Add below line:
0 0 * * * root mysqldump -u root -proot db_name > /home/username/db_backup/$( date +"\%Y_\%m_\%d" ).sql
0 0 * * * => every 24 hours

Answer 2

If your server is a linux, you can make a cron using this script : cronsql.sh .
#!/bin/bash
path=/home/backup/
projet=(databasename1 databasename2)
now=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")
for arg in ${projet[*]}
do
if [ ! -d $path$arg ]; then
mkdir $path$arg
fi
cd $path$arg
mkdir dump$now
cd dump$now
mysqldump -dBR --triggers -p"dbpassword" $arg > structure.sql
mysqldump --no-create-info -p"dbpassword" $arg > data.sql
done
It ll generate a folder with database name.
Inside, a folder with date
Inside the folder, a structure.sql file and a data.sql file
>databasename1
---->20151009
---->data.sql
---->structure.sql
---->20151008
---->data.sql
---->structure.sql
---->20151007
---->data.sql
---->structure.sql
for the cron
use crontab -e
then add 59 23 * * * /home/backup/cronsql.sh if cronsql.sh is in /home/backup/
And last but not least,
you can add in crontab
01 01 * * * find /home/backup/ -mindepth 2 -ctime +30 -exec rm -fr {} +
It ll delete every file / folder older than 30 days.
So you have a backup for every last 30days.
And no need to clean it manually

Answer 3

I found out, that you can do it with a *bat, if you are running windows.
This will safe your databases as zip, you also can upload them into ftp by changing this script a little bit.
Follow this link:
http://www.redolive.com/utah-web-designers-blog/automated-mysql-backup-for-windows/
It's easy to do, if you have any questions just ask